Dee Gordon breaks up no-hit bid by Gio Gonzalez in ninth

The Marlins lost 1-0 to the Nationals as Gio Gonzales came within 3 outs of a no hitter on Monday, July 31, 2017.

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The Marlins lost 1-0 to the Nationals as Gio Gonzales came within 3 outs of a no hitter on Monday, July 31, 2017.

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Gio Gonzalez grew up not far from Marlins Park in Hialeah.

On Monday, the hometown kid did good, nearly no-hitting the Marlins in Washington’s 1-0 victory over Miami in front of an announced crowd of 18,962 -- a figure that included many of the the pitcher’s friends and family members.

He fell short by three outs.

Dee Gordon opened the ninth with a single, spoiling Gonzalez’s no-hit bid.

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“It was tough,” Gonzalez said of his night. “Today there was too much on my mind.”

Gonzalez said his pregnant wife is scheduled to deliver within days and he experienced an emotional afternoon shortly before taking the mound at Marlins Park when he saw the mother of Jose Fernandez and the late pitcher’s five-month-old baby.

“It was a heavy dose of emotion,” Gonzalez said. “As soon as I saw Jose’s mom, she was already in tears. There was a lot of emotion right from the get-go.”

Gonzalez even warmed up in the bullpen using a baseball that contained Fernandez’s initials and No. 16, put there by the Nationals’ bullpen catcher.

“It was a real emotional thing where I tried to tone it down,” Gonzalez said, adding he told himself, ‘Don’t let this overpower the game.’”

It was Gonzalez who overpowered the Marlins, keeping them off balance with a heavy dose of breaking balls. Gonzalez was at his best in the middle innings when he retired 14 straight.

“Quite honestly, I thought we did an awful job with him as far as making him pitch,” said Marlins manager Don Mattingly. “I’m not taking anything away from him, but we did a really bad job of making him throw enough strikes. Just too many easy outs.”

Though Gonzalez walked three batters and hit another, none advanced as far as second. Even Gordon was erased on a double play in the ninth after Sean Doolittle took over and got Giancarlo Stanton to ground into a twin killing.

But at least Gordon prevented Gonzalez from becoming the fourth pitcher to no-hit the Marlins, joining the Dodgers’ Ramon Martinez, Phillies’ Roy Halladay and the Nationals’ Jordan Zimmermann.

No visiting pitcher has ever thrown a no-hitter at Marlins Park.

"I was trying to get on, get a good pitch to hit,” Gordon said. “(I) took a good swing at it. I'm just happy he didn't no-hit us.”

Gordon said he contemplated bunting to get on in the sixth, but wasn’t sure if that would have been frowned upon — a violation of baseball’s unwritten rules — given the situation.

“The weird part for me was it was 1-0 and a no-hitter, and my game is to bunt,” Gordon said. “I didn't know if I could bunt or not. I was kind of in a weird situation for myself.”

Gordon struck out in the sixth and never thought about trying to drop down a bunt in the ninth to spoil the no-hitter.